Shuttleless looms of the type to which the instant invention is applicable have opposed carrier elements which are attached to the free ends of flexible tapes. Prior to the present invention the opposite ends of these tapes have been fixedly attached to a point on the outer peripheral surface of oscillatably driven tape wheels disposed at the sides of a loom.
A number of U.S. patents describe and clearly illustrate the looms and mechanism for actuating flexible tapes and carriers by means of oscillating tape wheels and it is considered unnecessary at this point to insert herein a detailed description of these mechanisms. Attention is hereby drawn to U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,604,123 and 2,810,403.
The well known and conventional form of tape wheel is that fabricated from an aluminum casting which includes a rim section that is connected to the hub thereof by means of a plurality of equally spaced spoke elements. Although such tape wheels have satisfactorily performed their intended function the high inertia which they possess has been a limiting factor in achieving higher loom speeds without introducing excessively high loads on the driving mechanisms which actuate said tape wheels.
For looms of the type to which the present invention is applicable, U.S. Pat. No. 3,987,822 discloses a form of tape or so-called band wheel for effecting insertion and withdrawal of flexible tapes, with their respective carriers, from sheds of warp threads. The teachings of this patent pertain to an oscillatable driving wheel that is fabricated from a light weight material and which produces a small moment of inertia.
The present invention provides a tape control device which, by comparison with the conventional means for actuating the tapes, produces considerably less load on the tape driving mechanism and permits a loom to be satisfactorily operated at substantially greater speeds than has been heretofore possible.